Vulnerable kids

The children from abusive families may either bully each other or be bullied everywhere they go. They begin to loose more and more of themselves and any confidence or any shred of self esteem they may have begun with. Some give up, begin harming themselves and/or contemplate suicide. Some are even successful. We have developed a curriculum to address this life-threatening issue, which you will find in a link below.

any of these children who are so easily intimidated are at risk for being molested. A very high percentage of children from dysfunctional families are placed in situations which make them vulnerable to sexual abuse.

Because the abused parent is so preoccupied with the batterer, there is not sufficient supervision. In some cases the batterer is the sexual abuser, but often there is a close family friend, or a neighborhood kid who preys on these kids.

Whoever it is, they appeal to the role the child is accustomed to playing. They will tell the hero they are the only friend they have or appeal to their wanting to “care take”. They also will “guilt” them into not telling, so the abuser won’t get into trouble. That’s the last thing a hero would want. If this doesn’t look like
it will work, the abuser will threaten to destroy the good reputation the
hero has worked so hard to establish.

Neither the scapegoat nor the lost child wants to jeopardize the attention the abuser pays them. Someone is finally noticing them and treating them with “kindness”. These children experience great guilt as adults, wondering why there was a part of the abuse they enjoyed. Maybe it was the ice cream or just the
attention.